Friday, August 1, 2014

Mountain Trout Is N.C. Good

[Note: This post, prepared originally for the NC Folklife Institute's NCFood blog, is hosted on the institute’s website, with excerpts and a link to the website posted here.]

Imagine fishing in a fast-flowing, rocky mountain stream and reeling in trout for dinner. Such experiences have always been part of the food culture in the Blue Ridge region, whether for the Cherokee with prehistoric ties to its hills and streams or the families who settled there after the Trail of Tears campaign evicted most Cherokee from their tribal territory.

Jonathan Creek in Maggie Valley, NC, is part of the Mountain Heritage Trout Waters Program.

Visitors today can easily envision the days of how trout streams provided food for families as well as the thrill of mountain fishing. To encourage trout fishing as a heritage tourism activity, the N.C. General Assembly established the Mountain Heritage Trout Waters Program in 2007. Several locations in Haywood County and neighboring counties offer access to streams designated by the program. Only a special $5 fishing license (good for three days) is required. Some locations, such as the Town of Maggie Valley, even provide rods and reels at no charge. (Stocked ponds, although they don’t provide the stream experience, also offer chances, particularly to children, to reel in trout.)